 By James H. Cagle |
“Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation (lifestyle) received by tradition from your fathers; but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last days for you, who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in him” (1 Peter 1: 18-21 KJV).
Redemption in the biblical sense, or according to God’s plan of salvation, is the deliverance from the sins of humanity by the death of Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary. It is the atonement for human sins by faith in Jesus Christ and His finished work of redemption a sinner can be saved.
Redemption is “the purchase of God’s favor by the death and sufferings of His Son Jesus Christ; the ransom or deliverance of sinners from the bondage of sin and the penalties of God’s violated law by the atonement of Christ.”
Man became lost and in bondage to sin through Adam’s fall. This transgression of God’s commandment came at a price. It cost the separation of man from God, and the death of the sinner. Man couldn’t pay the price to redeem himself back to God because of his sinfulness. Therefore Christ came as the only righteous and sinless one to pay the price that would redeem fallen man back to God. Jesus’ blood was “precious” or of great value, and beyond price. The blood of Jesus was ”without blemish” or without any inherent defect, sinless, and was “without spot”, meaning He did not contract from outside any stain.
Before there was ever a sinner, there was already a Savior. Christ’s work at Calvary was not an afterthought of God. Jesus Christ had, before the creation of the world, been set aside as the Lamb of God to take away the sin of the world (v. 20; Rev. 13: 8).
Redemption speaks of one going and buying another’s freedom and then setting them free to serve the one who freed them. Paul put it this way, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God” (Rom. 12: 1, 2). In other words, live for Jesus, the One who redeemed us. Our knowledge of the great price Jesus paid to redeem us shows the great importance of holiness and should make us watchful of our conduct.
Because of his redemption through Christ, man is presently set free from the power and practice of sin, and will one day be set free from the presence of sin at the Rapture. This is when humankind’s redemption is complete as they receive a new body (Rom. 8: 23).
Redemption is not only about bringing the sinner back to God but about restoring all that was effected by The Fall back to God. The book of Revelation is all about redemption and how through a process in the end, all is reconciled back to God and His original plans (Rom. 8: 19-23; 1 Cor. 15: 24).
